Accused of “promoting normalization” with Israel, under threats and unacceptable pressure, a Beirut theater canceled in extremis a show by Wajdi Mouawad.
For fear of threats and concern for the security of its teams, the Le Monnot Theater in Beirut has decided to cancel all performances of Wedding day at the Cromagnons. The play was to be performed in Arabic from April 30 to May 19, with French and Lebanese actors, under the direction of Mouawad. In addition to marking the return of the 55-year-old director to his country of childhood, the production also marked the 30e anniversary of the author’s textFires.
In a press release Wednesday evening, the Théâtre Le Monnot said that “the decision was difficult, but taken due to unacceptable pressure and serious threats made to the theater and to certain artists and technicians”. Activists have even harassed actors on their phones. “We are deeply disappointed by this situation and, while affirming our attachment to freedom of expression,” declared the theater director, Josyane Boulos.
“Non-compliance with the boycott of Israel”
In addition to the suspension of the show, the Committee of Representatives of Prisoners and Detainees Released from Israeli Jails (The Commission of Detainees Affairs) accuses Wajdi Mouawad of “promoting normalization” with Israel. The organization filed a complaint against the author with the Prosecutor’s Office of the Lebanese Military Court and requests his arrest.
Additionally, the newspaper L’Orient-Le-Jour reports that activists believe that another piece by Mouawad, All Birds (2017), which deals with identity and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, “was financed by the Israeli embassy in Paris and the Cameri theater in Tel Aviv”. They denounce “the author’s communications with the Israeli enemy” and “non-compliance with the law on the boycott of Israel”.
Reactions from La Colline
Remember that Wajdi Mouawad’s mandate as director of the Théâtre national de la Colline, in Paris, has just been renewed by the Minister of Culture, Rachida Dati. In a press release, the management of the company said it took note of the decision of Théâtre Le Monnot: “The La Colline teams, back in France, will resume rehearsals to ensure the creation of the show at the Printemps des Comédiens, in Montpellier, on June 7 next. The play is also part of our programming next season. »
Created at the Théâtre d’Aujourd’hui in Montreal in January 1994, with among others Monique Mercure and Gilles Pelletier, Wedding day at the Cromagnons tells the story of a Lebanese family preparing for their daughter’s wedding amidst constant bombings and power outages during the Lebanese civil war. “Wajdi Mouawad wrote it at the age of 23, as a matrix for his theater: the nostalgia for a lost world, the pain of exile, the shadow of the Lebanese civil war. A legacy that parents leave to a family, but their misfortunes do not have to become the sorrows of the children,” comments the management of La Colline on its site.
The man of the theater is not at his first controversy. Let us recall that his staging of the cycle Womenby Sophocles, with singer Bertrand Cantat, convicted of the murder of his partner Marie Trintignant, caused enormous controversy in Quebec and France in 2011.